I finish my week-long tour tour of Second Life Halloween Sims by visiting Faircrest, a hauntingly beautiful destination that is also a bit unnerving. Twisted and dead shrubbery surround a mansion that is being used by a very strange cult -- where beauty and aesthetics are more important than gore. Ruins, both on the grounds and in the sea surround the main residence, which is bathed by very strange light, and is open to visitation. Make sure to visit the ruins and bare shrubbery of the exterior grounds.

Faircrest is a private residential sim that is open to visitors but requests that they be respectful.

Done Wiv a Twist has a very good renditions of a driving electrical storm. Fog hugging the ground and other strange lights complete a haunted effect. You can feel yourself getting soaking wet and worrying about electrocution as you make your way across the bramble bridge as you take cover in a ghostly cabin. I show animated GIF's to demonstrate this as the last two photographs in this post. The destination is divided into two areas, the first is a pleasant late October landscape when you arrive, walk a bit (you may have to adjust your graphics down) and enter the electrical storm.

Cica Ghost's latest art installation, 'Little Town' , opens to the public today and is a total feast for the eyes. Cica has done several art great installations over the years in Second Life, and I think this is her best one yet. I was very impressed by all the diverse elements in Cica's vision -- including Steampunk, Russian, and German medieval touches that all work so well together. This installation would make a wonderful set for a great Wagner Opera -- Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg comes to mind-- and is just the type of art that a major performance company would just love to experiment with in virtual reality.

This is a very interactive art installation, with moving gears and other items, automobiles that drive, and assorted balloons and other flying machines for the visitor to use. Try to get your viewer settings up to the highest level possible so you can appreciate the rich texture detailing which adds so much to the charm of the installation.

There were quite a few visitors on opening day, so you may have a bit of a crowd present when you arrive.

All photography was taken with the Windlight Sky Setting set for the parcel. I applied some sharpening to bring out the refined texture detailing, and a slight lomo effect to bring out the three-dimensional aspect of the photographs.

I highly recommend that you visit. I plan to come back and take some animated GIFS of the moving gears and other machinery.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

This Return of the Nightmare Walkthrough at Paradise Falls is a Second Life Halloween Desitnation favorite, and for good reason. This destination is always frightening and disturbing, especially when sounds are turned up. Violent clowns and the criminally insane greet you unexpectedly. There is blood and violence during the first part of your visit, and a very confusing maze at the end which I was not able to navigate. I especially liked the hanging dead bodies next to hunks of meat on hooks-- there is nothing like a butcher shop to get your Halloween blood flowing!

Make sure to turn your sound up (in the mixer icon on your browser) and any music off for best effect